A Walk Through History – Nuthampstead Airfield
On a bright and chilly February morning, we we’re once again thrilled to have a fantastic turn out of people as we led a community walk through the historic airfield at Nuthampstead, home to the 55th Fighter Group and the 398th Bomb Group of the 8th USAAF during World War Two.
The day saw seventy people explore their local airfield, led by our community archaeologist Martin Cuthbert, with superb support from writer and historian Malcolm Osborn. Malcolm really knows his stuff and shared many important pieces of the history of the airfield along the way.
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- St George’s Church. Anstey.
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- Malcom sharing the details of the stained glass window.
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- Remembering the B17 crew lost at the crash site.
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- Paying close attention.
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- The B17 crash site and church.
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- Walkers heading to the airfield.
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- Hearing the legends of the Blind Fiddler.
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- What remains of the end of the runway.
Along the way we visited St. George’s Church in Anstey, with its beautiful stained glass memorial to the air crews; the scheduled ancient monument at Castle Mound where a B17 tragically crashed during the war; the remains of the airfield’s runway; the bomb dump, located in the historic deer park of Scales Park, and also the Airfield’s Administration site, now home to a farm where we met several interested onlookers!
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- Ready for take off.
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- History makers.
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- Malcolm sharing the story of the crash at the end of the runway.
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- The bomb dump.
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- At the fusing shed.
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- Martin explains all.
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- Sunshine over the airfield.
The walk finished at another historic site, the Woodman Inn, Nuthampstead, where Malcolm and his colleagues have erected a remarkable memorial to those brave men who served here in this remote part of the Hertfordshire countryside.
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- Some interesting onlookers at the Admin site.
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- The new occupants of the Operations Block.
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- Today, the Admin site is a working farm.
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- A different view from the Chapel building
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- Malcolm at the memorial, Woodsman Inn.
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- A young walker reflects on the past.
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- In memory.
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- Farewell, but not for forgotten.
We’d like to say a big thank you Malcolm Osborn for his superb support in arranging and delivering this walk, our volunteers who enabled the event to take place, the landowners of the Bomb dump and Admin sites for allowing us to access their land and all those who came out to learn about and support their local history. Thank you.
Next to the Woodsman Inn is the new home of the Nuthampstead Airfield Museum, which will be opening to the public this summer. Please look out for further details of this exciting new venture in the coming months.
Following the great success of our heritage walks, we will be delivering more across the region in the future. If you would like to keep in touch about future events, or if you, or your museum, would like to host an event , then please drop us a line.
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